On this day we celebrate the feast of Our Lady, Mother and Queen.
My Queen! My Mother! I give myself entirely to thee; and to show my devotion to thee, I consecrate to this this day my eyes, my ears, my mouth, my heart, my whole being, without reserve. Wherefore, good Mother, as I am thine own, keep me, guard me, as thy property and possession.
--The Catholic Girl's Guide, edited by the Rev. Francis X. Lasance, Benziger Brothers, 1906.
The Litany of the Virgin Mary includes ten invocations to Mary as Queen.
Scroll down for the Four Great Anthems of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Three of them address her as Queen: the Ave Regina Cœlorum, page 592; the Regina Cœli, page 593; and the Salve Regina, page 594.
Father John A. Hardon, S.J., in a retreat conference on The Coronation of Our Lady, said:
"Perhaps the most explicit and, as far a I could find out, the most extensive explanation of why and how Mary is Queen was expressed by . . . . Pope Pius XII, when, in the Marian Year, 1954, he instituted a new feast - the Feast of the Queenship of Mary which is now celebrated on August 22, the octave day of Our Lady's Assumption. The Definition came, as we know, in 1950 of Mary's Assumption. The formal declaration of Mary's Queenship in 1954, to be exact December 8, 1954 which, in case you may have forgotten, was exactly one-hundred years since the Definition of Mary's Immaculate Conception by Pius XII predecessor, another Pius - Pius IX."
Click here for Ad Caeli Reginam, the Encyclical of Pope Pius XII on Proclaiming the Queenship of Mary.
Maurice Hamington, the author of Hail Mary?: The Struggle for Ultimate Womanhood in Catholicism, Routledge, 1995, says:
"With the declaration of the Assumption, Marian ecclesial and popular piety had reached its zenith. The year 1954 was declared the first 'Marian Year' by Pius XII, and Mary was given the title 'Queen of Heaven.' Many theologians believed that more Marian dogmas would emerge following the precedent of the Immaculate Conception and the Bodily Assumption. However, the rise of biblical scholarship, the biblical movement, and the ecumenical movement probably tempered Catholic zeal for more dogmas. Nevertheless, there have been failed attempts at further Marian dogmas, such as declaration of Mary as the 'co-redemptrix' of salvation." Page 20.
For a description of the Second Vatican Council's attempt to "protect its theological position of maintaining spiritual focus upon Jesus without alienating Marian devotees", see pages 20-23.
As an example of the current reversal of the Council's position, see Mariology: A Guide for Priests, Deacons, Seminarians, and Consecrated Persons, edited by Mark Miravalle, Seat of Wisdom Books, 2007. Cardinal Raymond L. Burke (then Archbishop of St. Louis) supplied the imprimatur, the foreword, and one of the two back-cover blurbs. (The other is by Scott Hahn.) Cardinal Burke expresses his hope that Mariology "will become a standard textbook in seminaries, programs of diaconal formation and houses of formation of institutes of the consecrated life and societies of apostolic life." See page 885 for information about the men who are the Contributing Authors. (One of them also supplied the nihil obstat.) See page vii for the Contents.
Click here for images of the Coronation of Mary.
Click here for today's Liturgy of the Hours and here for the Mass.
